Week 5 and April's challenge - Birthdays and FSM - #29and30

Can we believe that tomorrow will be the 5th month of this year, MAY!!  After we retired life has sadly just continued to roll at a very fast pace for us.

So how lovely for April to give us this week's challenge BIRTHDAYS.  She has lots of ideas.
Today my blog is about birthday cakes in my life. So  today I went and  found in my photo archives the earliest photos I have ... April this took me a LONG time !!!!

The earliest photo is  me aged 7...look at the cake and how cute I look!! I was pleased to find this cake photo taken nearly 61 yrs ago!! THAT is a long time eh!!

OK next one is me at 21, just finished teacher training and had starting teaching H Ec 3 weeks before in a Sec school, so young!!  My late ex DH is in the photo as as my fiancee. We were in love!!

I have found lots of 'O' birthday cakes to show you all tomorrow and then on to some stories :)

FSM #20 - What I wore ...my Pandora bracelet

FSM - my glasses sit on this 'nose' as I sleep!!

Last night as SW I didn't  loose but I was awarded the prize for the most money raised for our chosen local charity  Macmillan Nurses over 6 weeks. I raised £80, thank you for everyone that sponsored me.  We gave them £235.00 

28th April - Refreshment and Relaxation is Necessary and FSM catch up!

Is it really the end of my week? Sorry I haven't been around much but it has been a busy week in the garden before we go away next weekend and the computer had some teething probs too :(
Here are my FSM photos first
#25- Life is - relaxing in the sun with a cup of tea! (more refreshment and relaxing!!)

#26- Childhood - me aged 6 with My Nanna and Great Auntie Mary

#27- Earth - today was spent planting seeds in our veg garden

#28- My Sunday - reading and planning in the sunshine with a G&T for our holiday to Brittany . (Yes relaxing and refreshment too!)

Since retiring life seems to be one long relaxing time doing all the things I love such as staying in bed longer in the morning, reading, watching a lot of TV, learning new hobbies...at the moment crotcheting and this week sitting in glorious sunshine and occasionally getting up and gardening!!

Carol and I actually sitting at a Beach cafe on Thursday soaking up the sunshine, we were over dressed... I came home and found a pair of crops to wear

We found these statues on the beach. Aren't they great?

I did do a bit of gardening having bought a lot of plants at Aldi's whilst out with Carol. Think the frosts have gone from our area but Peter and I erected our mini greenhouse just in case :)

Peter doesn't usually relax like I do but caught him enjoying a few mins in the middle of gardening

Most days this week have been blue skies and sunshine but Fri evening the skies became black and we had a hailstone shower followed by the sun returning just before sunset!! 

Thank you for taking part in my challenge this week with photos of what you do for refreshment and relaxation . I finally got round to your blogs this evening. Anne take care and I hope Rhea will be OK xx

24th April - Where has time gone and is it really my week? catch up on FSM!!

Exactly where does time go?

This week is my quotation week and this month the quote is
"Make rest and refreshment necessary, not a luxury"

I think this is my mantra in life these days!! I do not work having been fortunate to be born at the right time to choose what I wanted to do, to save and reap the benefits at the right time and then to retire when I wanted to too!...sorry guys but that is a fact of life with peeps over 65!!

So this is def my life style. Rest is really necessary . Is it?.........
I love waking up to an empty diary with nothing to definitely do. How lazy is that? I was always going to do 'Good deeds' when I stopped work but this didn't happen. Each day after finishing work I just loved the feeling of nothing planned and I could do what I wanted each day. No clock watching, no bells, no deadlines... maybe I will one day start planning a more structured day but def not yet!!

Yes I have done the gym stuff, got hooked and addicted and then stopped!! Was it rest NO!! Interestingly what do we all mean by rest?... Rest to me is still a luxury at the moment!!

Well what about refreshment?

Sadly it wasn't always important to me. For many years I ate all the wrong foods and grew and grew cos I ate the wrong foods and rested too much and of course hated exercise!!!

I know today I am talking about rest and refreshment in a physical sense.

Maybe tomorrow I will talk about it in a Christian Spiritual sense!!  God being the bread of life and all that!

Catch up on FSM now

#20- What's on your mind...booking to go away at Christmas!

#21 - FIRE- my kind of fire!!

#21 - DGC twirling!!

#22 Time -time to sleep? Xanthe pretending to sleep for my photos!!

#I saw this person today... DH off fishing this pm!!

18th April onMusical thought! and FSM #17 Busy #18 -Hello

I am sorry I am not really participating this week on Music nostalgia. I have never been musical, never had a record player and really didn't have records either until just before I met Peter. Then I played, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Dire Straits etc.but not very often!!
I was brought up with Cliff Richard as my school heart throb (I had his photo on the inside of my desk lid!!!) Then as I went to collage we danced to the Beatles and twisted the night away at all night parties. I remember going to Jazz club on Canvey Island and locally and then it was folk club music for a while too!

I have to confess, I never sang to my children..well only chanting nursery rhymes. When I became a primary school teacher I got  collegue to do my music and PE classes and I took her class for D/T and RE!!

Yesterday we went baqck to the friends who have celebrated 80 this year and Peter and I put the flat pack bench up that we had bought Jim, it was a lovely sunny day

#17 was BUSY so here was the photo

#18 - HELLO I went to have electrolysis today and here is an Anne opening the door of her new 'barn' house. yes they are finally living in it!

My last photo is a close up for my view pages this month of the daffodils finally flowering in our back garden!

16th April - Lucky Snapping - Nostalgia and FSM #14, 15 and 16

This week on Lucky Snapping blog challenge we are going to tell each other about our favourite music or music which brings back memories! It could even be adverts
I had to start with this one which brings back memories of being a young mother and my first son mad about the Smurfs. He collected the little figures in his bedroom. We bought a cassette one Christmas and we all used to sing away to it and each Christmas until quite recently until we no longer had a cassette player it was played whilst I did Christmas cooking!!
Wonder how many of you remember them?

Father Abraham Smurf Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kWbMikrZ91U
I seem unable to put the Youtube screen on here so click on the link please!!

FSM photos

#14 - WATER

#15 - ALONE

#16 YOUR FAV COLOUR - blue in all areas of my life

13th April - Another day alone!! - FSM #13 view from my bed

Peter has gone to London to watch footie with his friend and both their grandsons aged 14 and 15, so I have a day to do what I want again...lovely but no car do will be at home!.
#13 - View from my bed, I used the photo I did for another view in Feb!! no need to reinvent the wheel is there?!

The evening sky last night with 3 mins between the 2 photos. The rain came lashing down in the 2nd photo

Tomorrow I am off the Alexander Palace to the stamp and Scrap Exhibition with Carol
Have a good weekend everyone xx

12th April - a lazy home day! Scrapping LO's and FSM#12 - in the middle

After quite a busy week I am home alone. The weather is supposed to be warmer but I am still not encouraged to go out in the garden yet so my home day will be maybe in my craft room and kitchen doing what I love, scrapping and cooking!

This morning I spent a couple of hours on admin jobs (very satisfying) and started to think about our holiday, with notifying our bank re cards abroad, AA European cover which I thought was a lot of money considering we are AA members!! and finding all the car docs we need to take with us including travel insurance.

For todays FSM #12 challenge photo -IN THE MIDDLE I used an old holiday photo in 2008 of myself in the middle of Carol's late DH and Peter "See no evil, hear no evil, say no evil"!

I hadn't shown any photos from this week so here are a couple from Wed when the husband of our friend (who was 80 in Feb) became 80. He is fine except sadly he suffers from Parkinson:(

They are Scots so the whisky was flowing at 3pm!!

and what a wonderful pressie found in Edinburgh!!

No scrapping done today!! Visitors and roof tiler came...where did the day go?  I did do some cooking though!

11th April - Lucky Snapping ' Silver Linings' letter V for Vulnerable and FSM photos

This week it is Anne's week to continue her Silver Linings theme with the 4th Letter V using the word

Anne says she reads "to be vulnerable is a sign of strength"  She says" It is important to acknowledge being vulnerable the moment we are. We won't change it but we can acknowledge it"!

The questions she asks us

• What do you do when you feel vulnerable?
• What do you eat and say?
• How do you dress?
• Do you talk to someone?
• Do you avoid doing something or do much more?

What we tell each other could give us little secret remedies for each other.

Well my silence this week means I have found this blogging challenge difficult!! I discussed it today both with my friend Carol and Peter to give me a slant on the word


Carol said she felt so vulnerable when " my husband died suddenly and I was totally on my own dealing with everything alone" I suppose she went out a lot socialised and thankfully she has met someone to be with :)

Peter said "he has always felt vulnerable to people taking advantage of his good nature and sensibility " He says "he retreated into himself, never told anyone as he was embarrassed to have let people do it to him" This was in every walk of life, work, home when he was young with his family and socially. This was so sad for me to hear :(

The dictionary definition is - exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally "we were in a vulnerable position"


I think that these days I don't put myself in a vulnerable situation except when I go to the Drs with an ailment,  then I worry that it will snowball out of my control and end up with tests and a diagnosis I don't want to hear!!
Age and maturity has made me less vulnerable, but when I was younger I felt very vulnerable when I wasn't feeling confident. This could be at times in work, social situations, when I felt I wasn't dressed as others, that I wasn't so popular with boys!!. Later in life I felt I was bigger (fatter) than others didn't look good and if someone said something which hurt me I retreated into myself! ... (I could never take and still cannot take sarcasm)
Interestingly I never showed my feelings outwardly and still don't!  I have never ever told anyone how I felt. I can probably say that I would binge eat to feel better.
Today I always think that make up, hair and dress is important to face the world. It is important to me to make the best of myself,  to feel good and face any situation!

Now FSM catch up

#5 Air

#6 Dreamy

#8 On my plate - my breakfast!!

#9 Tiny - one of my Easter decorations!

#10 - my roof being cleaned today!

#11 Detail - a close up fo a dandelion clock seeds

5th April - Sleet and cold and another view and #3 and 4

Can it possibly be April? Today I woke to sleet falling and 1C. I am so fed up of this weather!! In a month's time we will be in Brittany having a summer holiday!!!

Any way another view taken from my kitchen window as the sun was low and setting at  6.45

Now some sunsets
2 days ago at 6.04

Yesterday at 7oclock after a dull cold day the skies seem to clear for a frosty night! Already the sun is setting later these 2 photos were 10 mins apart

FSM photos#3 - Something beginning with A This was difficult as some one had done apple and astromeria(sp) etc so here is An Afternoon Activity!! as you can see the wristwarmers are coming along, finished one hand apart from sewing up!

FSM#4- This happenened today. making some dinner for myself last night whilst Peter was at choir

I haven't done today's photo yet and want to go and tackle the ironing next. looking forward to a meal out with friends tonight, it is a month since we last saw them, where do the weeks go!!

2nd April - Blue skies at last! and #2 BLUE for autism awareness day

I didn't know until I read the FSM photo for today it was world awareness for Autism and to wear blue today! http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/world-autism-awareness-day
FSM#2 BLUE - the sky today when we were out at Bedgebury Pinetum I used vingette frame using Picasa

Here are some photos at the Pinetum with Peter and 3 grandchildren, my stepD and a friend of grandson

Tonight this was the sunset, a cold night with the clear sky!

1st April View again! and FSM #1 play

Gosh here we are into the 4th month of Lucky Snapping challenge.

This week it is Jenni's view challenge and the word's from Sara Coleridge's poem for this month is

" April brings the primrose sweet

scatters daisies at our feet:

Well the sun is out today and the daffodils are starting to open and are blowing in the wind!! I have no primroses in our garden and the lawn we have no daisies either, will have too look hard tomorrow as we take 2 grandchildren out!

View today

FSM #1 Play - well still playing with crotchet!! Cracked even chain stitch,and practically can do slipstitch into the back of chain stitch,LOL...... fancy playing with knitting now!!

off to SW in a moment to see the damage done this weekend!!

31st March Easter Sunday and FSM#31 -STUFF

Happy Easter, Christ has Risen, He is Alive!!

A very cold day again 0C all day and no sunshine until late afternoon. We had a brilliant lively service at church and then the afternoon alone until 2 families arrived for a quick meal before Peter and a D in Law went to see Steele Eye Span at Tunbridge Wells
Here is my last snap shot of stop and look and of course snap...in case you miss it for this week!
Beautiful tulips that Perdita D in law bought me for Easter.

FSM ~31 - STUFF  - food for the family meal all prepped, Lasagne, garlic bread(looks a lot!!), salad and fish and chips (for 2 fussy kids!!) followed by hot choc fudge cake, strawberries and cream